Jillian is a specialist advisor in systemic disaster risk, resilience, and strategy. With over 30 years’ experience in emergency and disaster management, she has led multiple change management and capability building programs in Australia and the Pacific region, resulting in fundamental shifts in thinking, policy, and resilience outcomes.

As Founder and Director of Beyond Business as Usual, Jillian uses her deep knowledge and experience to support institutions, organisations and individuals redefine and develop business models and build the resilience and capability to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing risk context.

Andrew has been involved in the emergency management sector, with a strong focus on recovery, for more than 20 years. He was the National Recovery Consultant at EMA’s Australian Emergency Management Institute at Mt. Macedon where he led the development and delivery of the Institute’s recovery curriculum and provided support to state government recovery coordinators in the aftermath of various disasters, including the Port Arthur shootings, Indian Ocean Tsunami, Canberra Bushfires and Bali Bombings.  

Following that, he moved to Australian Red Cross to broaden their involvement in all aspects of the emergency management continuum including development of Red Cross’s work in building individual and community resilience, as well as supporting communities through long-term recovery. Key activities included the growth of Red Cross recovery programs in the aftermath of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires, development of the RediPlan preparedness program and establishment of a three year, multi-state recovery program in the aftermath of the 2019/20 bushfires.

Andrew has been involved in a range of policy development, including contributing to the National Recovery Principles and National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework and was involved with establishing the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience and Safer Communities and the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience. He is currently a Board member of Volunteering Victoria and has previously been on the Boards of Volunteering Australia and Asia-Australia Mental Health.

Isabelle Devos is a Canadian/Australian visual artist living and working in Armidale NSW, Anaiwancountry, for nearly twenty years. For the past fourteen years she has also been working in the mental health sector with One Door Mental Health, a statewide community managed organisation working in partnership with NSW Health as a Family and Carer Advocate, facilitating support groups, delivering online and in-person education and information sessions on mental health topics and one day connection conferences for mental health professionals and family carers.

In her work as an artist, she has partnered with regional arts organisations: Arts North West’s Putting the Pieces Together, an arts and disability multi-site project across the New England North West area of NSW and is currently on the Arts Planning Committee for the rebuild of Banksia Unit, an acute mental health inpatient facility. Isabelle recently held the position of secretary for four years on the Board of a local Rudolf Steiner School, developing a series of policies and procedures in line with government requirements while maintaining the integrity of the school’s unique education system. While living in Canada she managed a rural site of the Canadian Red Cross in New Brunswick, coordinating the local disaster service volunteers as well as home health services and Meals on Wheels program.

Silvano Giordano has been Director of Wilurarra Creative for over 10 years, living and working in Mirlirrtjarra (Warburton Community) in the very remote Ngaanyatjarra Lands of Western Australia. Silvano has a background in commercial printing, contemporary and community arts and sound engineering. With the belief that arts, access to technologies and appropriate self-directed learning opportunities are fundamental to self-determination, Silvano works alongside Ngaanyatjarra people to create exciting and relevant creative opportunities.

Since 2004, Wilurarra Creative has facilitated a diverse range of community driven activities and creative programs, co-created with 16-30 year old Ngaanyatjarra people. Project areas include music (recording, practice and performance), concerts, tours, community events, fashion, social change hairdressing salon, screen printing, design, cultural maintenance, metal work, photography, digital inclusion, videos, publications – including the Alanya project. Foundational to Wilurarra’s success is working ‘Malparara-way’ – Ngaanyatjarra and non-Ngaanyatjarra colleagues working alongside each other.

Scott brings 24 years’ experience as an Army Officer in the Australian Defence Force with highly developed problem-solving, project management, and logistics experience.

Career highlights include developing protocols to ensure deploying forces were appropriately trained and equipped, operational deployments to East Timor and Iraq and coordinating defence support to the Sydney Olympic Games and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

Jen Seyderhelm is the Manager of Rebus Theatre’s (Theatre For Social Change)Project Alchemyanda and a writer and editor for BMA Magazine and industry publication RadioInfo. Jen started professionally in radio more than 20 years ago as an announcer and later a producer, journalist, newsreader and sports commentator. Jen teaches podcast, broadcast and audio production skills to Federal, State and ACT governments, business and arts organisations, schools and TAFE.

She was a member of the judging panel for the 2021 Australian Podcast Awards. With a Bachelor of Arts from Macquarie University, a Certificate IV in Music Industry Skills, Counselling Diploma and Training and Assessment Certificate IV, Jen loves communication and storytelling. In 2021, she created an Australian first Certificate II in Podcasting Foundations taught nationally through the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. Jen’s podcasts include TACT, a podcast about sex, sexual health, body image and mental health, being created thanks to a YWCA and Beyond Bank Grant in collaboration with Women’s Health Matters and the University of Canberra, 20/40(Friendship across Generations) and One Hit Wonderful! which she plans to turn into a book.

Scotia is Executive Officer of the Creative Recovery Network, advocating and supporting the role of culture and the arts in disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

Scotia has a broad range of professional experiences in the community arts and cultural development sector, specialising in training, mentoring, strategic planning, project management, research and facilitation of community cultural development programs and strategies.

Scotia has a performance background spanning 25 years in theatre, devised performance, and coordination of projects and theatrical productions, installation performance, film, live-art and online exchanges. She established the Australian chapter of the Magdalena International Project which gives voice and recognition to women in theatre.

Jill Robson is Creative Recovery Network’s Communications Officer and Producer of the Creative Responders podcast. She is a communications specialist with more than 15 years experience in the film and cultural sectors as a publicist, marketing executive and communications director. 

She was previously Head of Communications for the Doha Film Institute in Qatar; Director of Marketing and Communications for Brisbane-based cultural initiative, the Asia Pacific Screen Awards; and regional publicist and event manager for Dendy Films and Dendy Cinemas in Queensland.

Our network is founded on a spirit of cooperation, grounded in the knowledge that disaster resilience is a collective responsibility across all sectors. We have hundreds of members across Australia working to support their communities in challenging times and collaborating with us on projects and advocacy. Our members represent a broad cross-section of the community and include artists, arts workers, community development practitioners as well as people who specialise in health, education, community engagement and all levels of government. If you would like to join us, find out more.

Jacqui has extensive Australian Public Service experience leading complex whole-of-Government work programs and a solid track record of successfully applying insight to deliver improvements to experiences, service delivery, decision making and business outcomes. Her experience includes managing strategic research programs and projects, oversight of a comprehensive agency complaints system, and developing domestic and international policy. 

Currently she leads Crisis Planning and Response for the National Emergency Management Agency. Jacqui grew up in rural Victoria and has had firsthand experience with floods, droughts and fires. Jacqui holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ballarat University.

Pippa Bailey is an independent producer/director/consultant who grew up and works on Wangal Land in Sydney. She is committed to connecting artistic practice to plans for a fairer future where Climate Justice leads.

Pippa started her career as an actor and reporter/producer with SBSTV. She held leading roles in the UK including The Museum Of on London’s South Bank, oh!art at Oxford House in Bethnal Green, The World Famous – company of pyrotechnicians and Total Theatre Awards at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Since 2013 Pippa has worked as Senior Producer with Performing Lines, Sydney Festival and in the First Nations team at Carriageworks. As Director/Producer for ChangeFest 2019-21, she worked in collaboration with Elders and communities to create events that imagine systems change and rehearse fairer futures. She is currently working with First Nations artists Henrietta Baird and Jacob Boehme, led by First Nations protocols.

Pippa co-convenes the Cultural Gardeners – Australian Cultural Alliance for Climate Justice, is a coordinator with Culture Declares Emergency UK, member of Collaborative Futures and a board Director of Theatre Network NSW and IETM – International Network for the Performing Arts.

As Research Fellow and Manager Christen conducts and facilitates research to support the Australian arts sector, to advocate for the value of arts and culture, and to advise the Australian government on arts and cultural policy.

Before working at the Australia Council, Christen was a lecturer in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney, conducting research in cultural studies, cultural policy, Inter-Asia cultural studies, and urban and housing studies. Christen is also a Chinese speaker, living in China intermittently between 2001-2011 and writing about the contemporary Chinese arts scene in those years.

Natalie Egleton is the Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation for Rural & Regional Renewal (FRRR). With a 25-year career in the non-profit and philanthropic sector in consulting, fundraising and partnerships, and organisation development roles, she is passionate about facilitating effective and enduring responses to issues facing rural communities. Since becoming CEO of FRRR in 2015 she has led the organisation through a period of significant growth and impact, facilitating over $80m in funding to remote, rural, and regional communities through hundreds of partnerships and collaborations. 

Before joining FRRR, Natalie consulted with Matrix on Board, working with numerous not-for-profit organisations in program evaluation, undertaking research analysis and developing business plans. Natalie has also held in-house roles at Evolve (Typo Station) and at ANZ Banking Group, implementing projects that made a tangible difference to the lives of people living in rural, regional and remote Australia. Natalie holds a B. Social Science (Public Policy/Research/Public Relations), Grad Dip Applied Science (Organisation Dynamics), and is a Graduate of the Institute of Company Directors.

Matt has more than 25 years’ experience in law enforcement, emergency management, enterprise risk, and business continuity.  He has held senior leadership roles with the WA Police specialising in emergency management, counter terrorism, and covert operations. After spending 16 years with the WA Police, Matt has held executive risk, emergency management and governance positions across the public sector and not for profit organisations. 

As the Director of Communities Emergency Relief and Support Directorate, Matt is responsible for the State’s Emergency Relief and Support function which provides human services to impacted individuals and communities during and after emergency events. In this role, Matt works closely with government and non-government agencies across the Community Services sector to ensure a coordinated multi-agency approach to the provision of emergency relief and support services across the State.

Kim Howland is a policy navigator and solution broker providing leadership, advocacy, representation and capacity building across the Victorian local government community services sector.

Margaret leads the work of the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) to enhance community resilience to natural hazards across Australia and beyond.  She is committed to enhancing diversity and inclusion of all voices to inform disaster risk reduction and resilience research, policy, and practice. 

Margaret’s first career was with the federal government, working in a range of social policy and program areas and preparing advice for successive governments for more than 33 years.  Motivated by her own experiences during the 2003 Canberra fires, and the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria, Margaret undertook original community-based research focussed on the key factors that contribute to disaster recovery and resilience.  She gathered and compared the views of national leaders of recovery, and community leaders who had been directly affected by emergency events across Eastern Australia.  Margaret’s work leading AIDR now builds on strong relationships and partnerships with researchers, community leaders, NGOs, all levels of government, emergency services and the business and philanthropy sectors. 

Dr Jen Rae is an award-winning artist-researcher of Canadian Métis descent living and creating on Djaara Country in Central Victoria. Her research-creation expertise is in the discursive field of contemporary environmental art and arts-based environmental communication. It is centered around cultural responses to climate change/emergency, specifically the role of artists. Her work is engaged in discourses around food justice, disaster resilience and speculative futures predominantly articulated through transdisciplinary collaborative methodologies and community alliances.

Jen creates and contributes to experimental multi-platform collaborative projects, including being a core artist of Arts House’s multi-year REFUGE project (2016-2021) – where artists, emergency service providers and communities work together to rehearse climate-related emergencies and explore the impact of creativity in disaster preparedness. She is a co-founder of the Centre For Reworlding (C∞R), a collective of diverse Indigenous, people of colour, settler, LGBTIQA2S+ thinkers and doers working at the intersections of art, climate futures and disaster resilience. Through their Creative Resilience Lab, events, workshops and projects the C∞R aims to bolster inclusive collaboration and creative leadership in climate emergency response and action.

During her PhD, she worked for the Australian Collaboration synthesising International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and later the Climate Action Network, further noting the absence of creatives in the fields of climate change communication and advocacy. She is also Director of Fair Share Fare and was a Co-founder of Fawkner Commons – creative and research-informed projects that centre food justice, land remediation and social cohesion in the climate emergency context. Jen has lectured at the post-graduate level in socially-engaged art and performance at the University of Melbourne and Deakin University.

Briony is a leader and expert at catalysing transformations to address the challenges of climate change. As a CEO, Director and Professor, she is skilled at bringing together people with diverse expertise and lived experience to develop visions and advance solutions that have real-world impact for communities, cities and regions. This includes strategic guidance for creating pathways toward sustainable and resilient futures.

As the CEO of Fire to Flourish at MSDI (Monash Sustainable Development Institute), Briony leads a groundbreaking initiative to rethink our approach in the aftermath of disaster. Working closely in partnership with communities affected by the 2019/20 Summer bushfires, they are trialing and scaling innovations in community-led recovery, supporting communities to co-create foundations for long-term resilience and wellbeing. The five-year program is a partnership between the Paul Ramsay Foundation and Metal Manufactures Pty Ltd.

Sam is a proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander man who respects, practices, and promotes his diverse cultures within his family and broader communities throughout Australia. Born and raised in Townsville and having cultural ties to the Townsville region as a descendant of the Birrigubba Nation, Sam respects and acknowledges his connection to country and also acknowledging and respecting his father’s Torres Strait Islander connection to country on Maurar (Rennel Island) in the Torres Straits. 

Sam has more than 30 years experience across government and community sectors including education, housing, employment, natural resource management, youth justice and child protection. His current role is Northern Queensland Emergency Services Regional Coordinator where he works in the Emergency Services sector with Australian Red Cross at a regional, state & national level. Sam assists in the coordination of community resilience, response, and recovery programs to care for communities with a focus on psychosocial support.